Linden MacIntyre (born May 29, 1943) is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster and novelist. He has won eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy and numerous other awards for writing and journalistic excellence, including the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his 2009 novel, The Bishop's Man. Well known for many years for his stories on CBC's the fifth estate, in 2014 he announced his retirement from the show at age 71. His final story, broadcast on November 21, 2014, was "The Interrogation Room" about police ethics and improper interrogation room tactics.[1]

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One of three children of Dan Rory MacIntyre and Alice Donohue, he was raised in Port Hastings, Nova Scotia. As a miner, his father was rarely at home. MacIntyre has said, "The old fellow decided the family would stay in the community and he would go away and stay as long as it took. ... My mother was a teacher and my sister and I stayed with her.”[2]

He joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Halifax in 1976 and for three years he hosted a regional public affairs show called The MacIntyre File. It was with this program that he launched a successful legal challenge before the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia over access to affidavits and documents relating to search warrants. Later heard before the Supreme Court of Canada, the successful suit was a landmark case which set a precedent in support of public and media access to information in Canada.[3]

In 1980, MacIntyre moved to Toronto, where he still resides, to work as a producer and journalist on CBC’s new flagship news program, The Journal. This appointment took him around the world preparing documentary reports on international affairs, preparing such notable features as "Dirty Sky, Dying Water" (about acid rain). From 1986 to 1988 he was host and national editor of CBC Radio's flagship show, Sunday Morning. In 1990 he was named co-host of the weekly investigative newsmagazine the fifth estate, with which he remained until 2014. In addition, he has been a frequent guest host of The Current on CBC Radio One.

In 2014, MacIntyre decided to retire both to help spare at least one younger colleague from the pending 657 job cuts from the CBC and to illustrate the effect of the considerable budget cuts the CBC is enduring.[4]

For the fifth estate, he has written numerous investigative reports often with producer Neil Docherty. Many of the shows have also appeared on Frontline. Examples of his stories include:

"To Sell a War" (1992). The film is about a public relations campaign to gain public opinion support for the First Gulf War. It won an International Emmy and a Gemini Award.

"The Trouble With Evan" (1994). This film, about the psychological abuse of a child by his parents, was introduced by MacIntyre when first broadcast as the saddest story he ever had to tell. Winner of an Anik Award, it was removed from competition at the Cannes Film Festival and banned in Canada for several years due to court orders on behalf of some of the subjects.[5][6][7]

"His Word Against History: The Stephen Truscott Story" (2000). It was a co-recipient (with other fifth estate documentaries) of the Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism.

"The Scandal of the Century" (2001) about false accusations of sexual abuse in Saskatchewan (see Sheila Steele).

"Toxic Company" (with Frontline and New York Times Television, 2003). An expose of McWane, it won a Dupont/Columbia Silver Baton, the George Polk Award, the George Foster Peabody Award and the CBC's Wilderness award. The accompanying New York Times series, "Dangerous Business", won a Pulitzer Prize.

During a fifty-day lockout by the CBC in 2005,[8] MacIntyre penned a memoir called Causeway: A Passage from Innocence, which he dedicated to his mother. He has five children including CBC reporter Darrow MacIntyre. He married broadcaster Carol Off in 2000.[9]